With over 2000 members, Bay Area Friends is one of the largest and most active H social groups in the world. Our members plan social events almost every week of the year! We are blessed that so many of our members have stepped up to the plate to organize a large variety of events to appeal to our very diverse membership.

Bay Area Friends Meetup Group: Meetup offers great functionality when organizing events and many of our members prefer organizing events on Meetup over our old Yahoo Group. Please join the BAF Meetup Group at:

Since Bay Area Friends (BAF) has no dues, and no budget, no officers and no social directors, we rely on our regular members LIKE YOU to volunteer to organize events that they think others will enjoy – such as Happy Hours, picnics, hikes, bike rides, museum tours, beach parties, dancing, ball games, movies and dinner, house parties, BBQ’s, ski trips, surfing, camping trips, concerts, bowling nights, Bay-to-Breakers, skating, wine-tastings, comedy shows, theatre nights – you name it! It’s up to ALL OF US to VOLUNTEER to organize the sorts of things we’d like to do! This group is whatever you make of it!

Look for the Blue Balloons!

BAF events are often held in public places such as restaurants or parks, etc. In order to help people find us more easily, the organizers usually bring a few BLUE BALLOONS. Sometimes organizers use other ways to help members find the group and that is usually explained in each event listing.

Attending Your First Event(s)

If you have never attended a BAF event before and are a little shy – don’t worry! We were all *new* to the group at least once! We all have stories about how we got over our shyness and finally came to our first event(s) – and how everyone made us feel so welcome! New people attend events all the time – in fact, many of us are pretty new to the group ourselves. If you would like to talk to someone before attending your first event(s) — and get your questions answered and possibly meet up with them there so that you have someone to talk to and introduce you to other people — just tell the organizer of the event you would like to attend and they will put a “BAF Buddy” in touch with you. We will try to assign you a “Buddy” who is around the same age, the same sex if possible, or maybe lives near you – someone you can comfortably talk to and maybe carpool to an event with. Or, if you do not have a particular event in mind but would like to ask someone questions, please feel free to email our Yahoo Group Moderators at bayareafriendsSF-owner@yahoogroups.com.

Organize an Event!

BAF members live all over the Bay Area and beyond – from Sacramento to Santa Cruz, Marin, the East Bay, South Bay, San Jose, the Peninsula, and of course, the City of San Francisco. If we haven’t had an event near you in a while, you should organize something! Or, if there is something you would especially like to do (i.e. salsa dancing, hike Mount Tam, attend an art show opening or jazz festival, etc.) – please go right ahead and organize that kind of event so that you can meet other people who like to do the same thing! Although last-minute events are sometimes posted, it is usually best to post events at least a month in advance to get the best turn-out. “Look for the blue balloons!” It is also good to post links to the event venue and directions if possible.